Mapping Music on Facebook

More than 110 million songs, albums and radio stations have been played 40 billion times through apps integrated with Facebook’s Open Graph. So what does it look like when millions of sound waves travel through Facebook?

Inspired by old-school graphic equalizers, this Beatquake maps the volume of listens for each of the top three most popular songs in the U.S. each day over a period of 90 days. Colored layers, each representing one song, rise and fall over geographic locations to correspond with the number of plays in that area. The texture of the map is driven by BPMs (beats per minute) and changes as one song overtakes another in popularity. For this project, we partnered with Stamen, a design and technology studio in San Francisco specializing in maps and data visualizations. (You can read more about their creative process here, or, for a technical behind-the-scenes look at what powers this map, visit their blog.)

As you watch the video, here are a few moments to look for:

Plays of Scream & Shout by will.i.am & Britney Spears erupt in New York City on February 9.

A few days later, Scream & Shout explodes in the South, just after the song’s Valentine’s Day video release.

Swedish House Mafia’s Don’t You Worry Child takes off in Texas on February 22.

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